Boy racers caused travel chaos in central London over the weekend as many were seen gathering for a ‘car meet’ and performed burnouts.
Video footage showed traffic jams extending down Pall Mall and towards Trafalgar Square on Saturday night as ‘hundreds’ joined to watch the alleged unofficial event.
A video uploaded to Twitter by London 999 includes several clips showing groups gathering around cars and motorbikes as engines are heard loudly revving and popping.
Grey and red smoke fills the air as drivers spin the wheels while remaining stationary before zooming off down the road.
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One uploaded a snap reading ‘burnout’ with the ‘okay’ emoji, before another clip shows a quad bike driving down the central London roads.
Lawyer Anne Mannion posted a separate video of the scene showing traffic slowly moving at Waterloo Place as crowds are seen gathering with smoke filling the sky.
She tweeted: ‘Absolute chaos #Waterlooplace Boy racers back yet again. 1 car looks as if it is on fire. 100s of people filming cars popping revving speeding across.’
Ms Mannion told Metro.co.uk: ‘West End residents have had to put up with this every weekend after there was a crackdown on Sloane Street and these souped up cars were moved on from there.
‘It is incredibly stressful hearing gunshot noises and revving from 10pm till 1am. I have tried to speak to the drivers but they don’t think they are doing anything illegal or antisocial.
‘At the moment they like to photograph their cars against the Christmas lights so local residents are worried this is going to go on for weeks.’
Jambuster, which tweets live updates about traffic around the capital, warned that A4 Waterloo Place was ‘congested due to an unofficial event’.
‘Traffic is slow moving in both directions in Pall Mall with queues back in to Trafalg.’
It came on the same night that hundreds of young people and teenagers crammed into the street outside Harrods in Knightsbridge.
Police arrived at the scene shortly after 1pm and arrested four people on suspicion of affray, flouting Covid-19 rules and a public order offence.
London is currently under tier two restrictions meaning large gatherings are illegal and only groups of up to six people are permitted to meet up.
A Met Police spokesperson said: ‘Police were called to numerous reports of a large gathering of drivers and cars just after midnight on Sunday 6 December in Pall Mall, SWI.
‘The vehicles attracted a large gathering of people on the street, as they travelled at speed along Pall Mall, Exhibition Road and the surrounding area.
‘A number of officers attended the locations. Officers engaged with members of the public and explained the rules around COVID 19. The vehicles and crowds were dispersed by approximately 03:00 hrs.’
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